Legal experts are calling for rational debate of Victoria’s Pandemic Management Bill, as protests grow radical outside parliament.
Chants during the protests called to “kill” and “hang” Premier Daniel Andrews over the controversial bill which would transfer the power to declare a state of emergency from the Chief Health Officer to the Health Minister and the Premier.
The Bill’s proponents say it reflects lessons the government has learned from dealing with the pandemic the past two years.
Legal experts note it will expand the executive’s power to detain civilians, but will also establish an independent management advisory committee and provide for greater privacy protections around using QR codes.
The opposition is proposing 18 new amendments which come after tens of thousands of people crowded for three consecutive nights in the Melbourne CBD over the weekend in a show of solidarity against the proposed Pandemic Bill.
Protests on Saturday were larger in scale than the anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine mandate rallies that preceded it.